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Ethics clears seven lawmakers in probe of PMA Group

The House ethics committee has cleared seven appropriators
of any wrongdoing following an investigation looking into whether the lawmakers or
their staffs exchanged earmarks for campaign contributions with the now-defunct
lobbying firm PMA Group.

The report concluded that the lawmakers did not violate any
rules or ethical guidelines in dealing with the PMA Group, founded by former Appropriations staffer Paul Magliocchetti. PMA was particularly successful in
getting earmarks for its clients and was known as one of the top defense-lobbying
shops in Washington.

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The PMA Group shut down last year after the FBI raided its
offices amid allegations of improper campaign donations. PMA and its long list
of clients made millions in campaign contributions to lawmakers.

The House ethics report said that investigators found no
evidence that any lawmaker was banking on campaign donations when making
decisions about earmarks that benefited PMA clients.

“The Standards Committee further found no evidence that members
or their official staff were directly or indirectly engaged in seeking
contributions in return for earmarks,” the ethics report said.“Rather, the evidence showed that
earmarks were evaluated based upon criteria independent of campaign
contributions, such as the number of jobs created in the member’s district
orthe value to the taxpayer or the
U.S. military, and without members or their official stafflinking, or being aware that companies
may have intended to link, contributions with earmarks.”

The ethics committee’s nearly yearlong investigation
concluded on Friday after it reviewed thousands of pages of documents.

Initially, the independent Office of Congressional Ethics
(OCE) had recommended last year that the ethics committee close its probe
without further action on five of the seven members under review. The OCE
recommended that Tiahrt and Visclosky stay under review because they did not
agree to sit down for interviews with OCE investigators.

Now the ethics committee has cleared both alongside the
other five senior defense appropriators.